What is the Greatest Kind of Love?

February is also called the Love Month for in this month, Valentine’s Day is celebrated (feast day of the Roman Catholic’s St. Valentine. They also say that this is the season in which birds start laying eggs. Because of such reasons, they made it a symbol of love. This belief is always associated to sexual love.

The word love is attributed to 3 Greek terms. First is the word Eros – son of goddess Aphrodite in Greek mythology. In Latin, he is Cupid – a small child bearing an arrow. Eros or erotic love is for the opposite sex. Freud says in his psycho analysis that this is the work of libido. This pertains to the desire of giving pleasure to oneself. This is the lowest kind of love.

The second term is Phileal. This is a person’s love for his fellow: a child’s love for his parents, parents’ love for their child, love between friends, a citizen’s love for his country. It is the love expressed by heroes as they sacrificed their lives for the freedom of their motherland. This a higher type of love compared to erotic.

The third word is Agape. This pertains to the love of God. In the usual language, it is what we call the altruistic love. According to the Living Bible in I John 3:16, “…we know that real love is from Christ example in dying for us. And so we also ought brothers.” This love which must be proclaimed to us is described in I Corinthians 13. This part of the Bible is known as the chapter of love. From verse 4, “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,” indeed, Agape or God’s love is the greatest of all.